Friends,
The metaphor of the ‘Churning of the Ocean’ in the Indian myth is an apt description of the trials and tribulations AND for those lucky ones, the triumph of success and positive learning experience that comes with it.
But beware! There is also the ‘Hala-Hala’ poison that spew forth as the product of the ‘churning’!
Touring a large dance group is a living manifestation of this process of ‘Churning’.
Dancers grow as an artist and in character especially when they have to work as a team to manage the tour themselves, as the case with Sutra.
Many things have to sync together for a performance to be deemed a total success for the artist. This may be asking too much of Life.
A performance can be wonderful from the audience point of view but it may leave a bitter taste for the artistes who eventually have to suffer through the ordeal. They can’t wait for the show to be over and in the thick of winter, may find there is no hot water to shower in the hotel they’ve been assigned.
Clearly, Radhe! Radhe! was appreciated by the audience but the poor Sutra dancers had to endure being in costume from 11am to 9pm as they had to, at the performance for the Chandigarh University, last evening on 19 Jan, 2026.
My sympathy went to them as they patiently endured the discomfort for the sake of their art. To what extent must it always ‘come with the territory’?
As per Sutra tradition, our sari costumes are tied, not stitched. The poor girls have to endure the bane of untying and tying again their costumes in the course of the 10hrs, when they needed to go to the loo.
Also, the artistes had to endure taking part in a long procession of a few kilometres in full costumes before performing!
Walking past students, as drones flew past overhead, amidst intermittent blasts of confetti, the artistes put on their best smiles, waving the provided country’s flags. Obviously, there was a busy marketing exercise at work here at the expense of artistes who were about to perform and had not yet have their lunch past 3pm!
The show started and finished late. It was also way too long. There was miscommunication in the duration expected of each group. Naturally, coming all the way from their countries, with a full company in tow, each group would fight for a longer duration to make the difficult and expensive tour worth their efforts!
In the end, it is not about who or which organisation did what, but about being mindful human beings. There is also the positive effect to the human development as the result of the exposure of the diverse Arts & Culture, of the International Dance & Music Festival at Chandigarh University, co-organised by ICCR.
There was also the pleasure of people to people connect, meeting old friends like Odissi dancer Leesa Mohanty or seeing again dedicated senior ICCR officers, who had previously looked after us, some thirty years ago when we toured the region with ICCR.
Fortunately, for CU experience, there was the captive audience of students, who braved the winter cold, thirsting for entertainment.
Performing for, and reaching out to them was a pleasure and we know that some where out there, in the huge crowd of young minds, a few rasikas in the making are touched and forever changed by the experience!
Ramli